The Dalles City Council met last night, and the city received good news from the auditors about concerning audits of the 2020 to 2021 fiscal year which ended in June for both the city and the Columbia Gorge Regional Airport.
“It’s a clean opinion, fairly presented, the kind you want to get from the auditor.”
That was Tim Gillette, from the Portland-based audit firm of Talbot, Korvola and Warwick. He also added this accolade:
“I will give the city a big thumbs-up for having a positive unrestricted net position. Many of my clients do not. The city of Portland’s unrestricted net position is a deficit of about 4 and a half billion dollars. That’s billion with a “b.” So the fact you have a positive position is a good thing.”
Unrestricted here means funds that can be used for any purpose, and not restricted to certain uses. He said The Dalles has 5 point 3 million dollars in that category in the general fund. And that drew this remark from Mayor Rich Mays:
“We’re sorry that the City of Portland doesn’t measure up to the City of The Dalles (laughter)”
In other business, councilors passed several housekeeping measures, and heard from Public Works Director Dave Anderson that the federal government would pay more than 92 percent of a million dollar project to put a left turn lane on a stretch of West Sixth that has seen a number of accidents. If all goes well, work could start this year.
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